Why Are We Happy in Adar? - Tehila Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

and so I want to talk a little bit about the meaning of this month and how we can prepare ourselves to go into it as many of you know but maybe some of you don't there's a famous saying when the month of Adar comes in we increase our happiness everyone knows this I mean if you go into any school in Israel the kids are singing me whenever the month of Adar comes we increase our happiness it's sort of just a given of course in the month of Adar we're supposed to be extra happy but then I started thinking for a moment like why but seriously why like pesach Passover that's a big deal but we're happy on Passover we never think that we need to be happy for all of the month of Nissan being happy is a responsibility I don't know maybe for some of you it comes naturally for me I have to work at it like don't forget to be happy so you know why not be happy in the whole month of tissue because of sukode and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there's so many great holidays but we don't have to be happy for all of the non-holiday days in t-shirt so what's up with this so I started kind of in my nerdy way researching this subject it turns out there's no like super ancient source I mean they're all our sources are ancient but you know in the in the Magilla and the scroll of Esther there's no mention of needing to be happy throughout the month of Adar and in all of the the mission of there's no month there's no mention of needing to be happy in the month of Adar it appears for the first time in the talmud what does appear in the mishnah in the track state of tahneed is a statement about a different month the mishnah states when the month of of comes in we need to have less happiness kind of makes sense right because even though we know the Ninth of Av is the day of the destruction of the temple so of course we're a terrible morning on the 9th of of the ninth of odd didn't just happen in a moment the destruction of the temple didn't just happen like boom you know there was first a Siege and then The Siege you know was breached the walls and then in the inner walls and there's you know this sort of development towards the final destruction and so it makes sense that from the beginning of the month we would already be sort of lowering our enthusiasm and getting into the sort of down uh mood of the month of Av and that's all the mishna says comes the talmud when the talmud comes to interpret the mishnah the talmud says as we are sad in the month of when the month of ah begins so too must we be happy when the month of Adar comes in and then a different Rabbi in that talmud says asks well what does that happiness mean and then he says well if you're having some sort of legal conflict with a gentile you should avoid going to trial in the month of of and you should try to sort of push your trial into the month of Adar now I know I've shared with you some strange talmudic passages but you guys have to admit that this one might be the strangest we're all just taking it as a given that we need to be happy in the month of Adar but there isn't any Source in the mission for it and then the talmud says because of the month of Av we need to be that we're sat in the month of I know we need to be happy in the month of Adar and then it says what kind of happiness if you're having a legal conflict then you should choose to have like you'll have good luck or something in that month and therefore we're all running around dancing and singing that we're happy in other you guys have to admit that that's extra strange even for the kind of sources that I like to prove you guys now you'll say yeah go look at Rossi Rashi will explain everything so we look at Rashi and Rashi says well the month of Adar it has Purim and then the month of Nisan has pesach and those are related to one another and so therefore we're happy and you're like whoa whoa whoa we've been busy trying to figure out how Adar is related to the month of ah now you're connecting Russia you're connecting Adar to the month of Nisan and then you're telling us that the kind of Happiness we have you know there's certain types of happiness that we have on holidays maybe it's having a celebratory Meal special prayers you're saying the special kind of happiness that we need to have now is that we're going to have good luck in these times because somehow all this is related to pesach that is super strange I think maybe the key to understanding this is actually a different midrash in the track date of Magilla there it says you know it's interesting the Magilla it doesn't say that Haman Haman just you know through uh you know a lottery to see which day it should be it said first he tried to figure out the month and then the day and he specifically went first to the month because the month had significance it wasn't like he was just picking a day he wanted to First focus in on a month that would be good for destroying Israel and the midrash says that when it fell on Adar he was extraordinarily happy because he knew that Moshe rabenu that Moses had died in the month of Adar so he said that that means that's a bad luck month for the Jewish people therefore he was happy but the Metro says the joke was on him because he didn't realize that the righteous are known to be born and to die at the same the same day very often and so Moshe actually also was born in Adar meaning at the beginning of our Salvation started in Adar as well so you Haman think that that's our dark time but it's actually our light time now if we sort of try to bring this all together what does that mean it means that there's a connection between the type of Salvation that we have on Passover the type of Salvation that we have on Adar and that the Taliban is trying to draw our attention to a certain type of happiness that we're supposed to draw in these months okay so let's and then it's also related to the month of Av into this destruction of the temple but as like a mirror opposite so let's try to bring all these ideas together what is what is what are they trying to tell us does that mean that you know or is it trying to tell us well you know there's good luck months and bad luck months is it like a horoscope that seems to be heyman's approach that doesn't seem to be our approach I think we put this all together what do we know we have holidays that celebrate different things but the real holidays of Salvation where it looked like our neck was in The Noose and we were about to be destroyed but then Hashem saved us mercifully those are Purim and pesach we have Hanukkah too but Hanukkah was a 26 year war and you know the day that we celebrate it was for you know the the miracle of the oil it wasn't like the specific day of the Salvation we have two holidays that Mark real salvation on the other hand we have the month of of where Hashem dealt with us lessen the attribute of Mercy but more in the attribute of Justice where we got what we deserved you know we we sinned and we had destruction and so that's a Time you know what are the sages teaching us that when you have a month like the month of Av it's a time for caution and reflection and realizing that you need to have a fear of heaven and you know to tread very very cautiously and carefully when the month of Adar begins what is the midrash telling us Adar is a time that lends itself to Salvation it's a time that Hashem set into sort of the the calendar where he is extra generous in showing us his Mercy that he's with us that he will deal with us miraculously even when things seem to be lost why is Rashi connecting Purim to pass over because he's saying look carefully look at this mudrash pay attention it's true that the cell the final salvation of pesach happened a Passover happened in the month of Nisan but when did it begin it began with the birth of Moshe when were all of the plagues they were all in the month of Adar so he's saying pay attention even the salvation of Passover is really rooted in the month of Adar and so that moment was set into time and he's saying that when when our enemies look at those times they don't really understand our relationship with Hashem they don't understand that Hashem through Dark Times accompanies us and lifts us up with mercy and so he didn't understand that relationship he just looked at the darkness of the month of Adar and thought this is going to be a great time for annihilation he didn't understand and so when we look at Adar we see these times in our history where Hashem said I see that you're in the darkest place but I'm going to save you I'm going to lift you up and so when the talmud is saying that's a good time to have you know your conflict with it specifically says in the talmud a conflict with a gentile what does that mean a conflict with a gentile is that just like oh well I was having some lawsuit let me go do it in Adar what it's trying to say is that when you have a conflict and you feel like All Is Lost focus in on the the message of the month of Adar try to bring that into Adar and connect with that special timer Hashem is so generous with his love to us specifically in our relationship with the with the Nations that would seek our destruction with people that would seek our destruction and so it's a time for not a happiness of oh yeah you know let's drink and merry make and eat food it's a totally different kind of Happiness the talmud is saying don't don't think that this is the regular happiness this is the happiness that comes from that quiet confidence and knowledge that even in Dark Times Hashem is going to come and save us like he did in Egypt and like he did in the Book of Esther so with that I wish as a hodestov a blessed new month of Adar that we go in and experience in all of our dealings and in all of our frightening you know interactions that we feel that energy of Adar giving us that that faith in Hashem that he is with us just like he was with our fathers bye guys have a great month